Metaphor ReFantazio Brings Persona Trappings Into A Fantasy World [CNET]

The combat and stylistic user interface are familiar, but the epic story full of fantasy politics may not be what players expect.

The combat and stylistic user interface are familiar, but the epic story full of fantasy politics may not be what players expect.

At Gamescom 2024 in Cologne, Germany, I got a chance to play the first hour of Metaphor ReFantazio, the upcoming RPG from Atlus with lots of DNA from the studio’s successful Persona RPG series. It sure looked and played like a Persona game, but with an epic fantasy story full of political intrigue and not a little bizarre body horror. 

Suffice it to say, players should expect something different than the high school drama they’ve come to expect from the franchise. From the outset, Metaphor is a game about changing the course of a nation’s history, with a more straightforward story that’s bound to get complicated as its fantasy world interweaves with our modern one.

It’s tough to tell just how much Metaphor deviates from the Persona mold, especially given the series’ tendency to slowly unfold over dozens of hours. But the new game has plenty of trappings from the fan-favorite series, from battle systems to stylish menu art that will draw new players in.

Metaphor ReFantazio opens with a bleak scene: The king is dead, and the fantasy confederacy of Euchronia, containing three smaller nations and eight races of fantasy beings, is in turmoil. To save the kingdom, players take the role of the rarest of those races — a normal-eared, no-horns Elba (a human by our standards) — on a quest to free the king’s son from a terrible curse. 

With him is Gallica, a fairy companion (from another of the eight races) to help him and drop lore for the player. In his possession is a book decorated in gold leaf given to him by the royal prince, and in its pages are pictures of an impossible land with steel buildings and one people. That should sound familiar because it’s our world.

How the fantasy world is connected to our reality is far from clear at the one-hour mark into the game. That was especially true toward the end of my demo, when I joined the Euchronia kingdom military in pursuit of my quest and rushed to the aid of a fort under attack from truly bizarre creatures, including eggs with legs. Yes, you read that right. 

The game’s monster design intriguingly merges human and beast parts for some striking and repulsive enemies that look straight out of a Hieronymus Bosch painting, which seems tied to the game’s overarching themes (barely seen in the demo) of horror at what is (and isn’t) what we consider conventionally human. To wit, at the top of a mound of dead soldiers stood a colossal boss that defies description: humanoid, four legs dangling with swords spearing downward from each, feathered wings spotted with hands sprouting from the thing’s head. As the protagonist stares up in horror at the colossus, someone calls it a name: human.

That’s when a voice asked if the protagonist would rise to meet fate, and after agreeing, violently transformed him into a giant suit of armor. Which, if I’ll be frank, felt just like piloting a super-size Persona. Just as I was about to take on the boss, my demo time ended.

It’s a promising start to a game with a big world and lots of lore, which I found nestled in journal entries in the pause menu. But it’s impossible to tell whether the game’s setting will be an enjoyable place to spend dozens of hours. The fantasy world is presented as a powder keg, with a strained alliance of nations under Euchronia populated by mythological races pitted against each other. 

On top of that are clear class politics, which includes lower castes that are banned from and punished for using magic items (called “igniters”). In the short intro, the protagonist befriends a nobleman volunteering in the armed forces to prove not all gentry avoid the front lines.

Metaphor’s setting is rife with drama, but of a different sort than the high school settings of recent Persona games. The new game seems set to tackle more mature themes of national, racial and class politics, though that could alienate players who’ve become accustomed to the teenage antics, angst and relationship-building that’s become synonymous with the franchise.

The combat feels fine enough, with conventional fantasy magic in place of Persona skills, and it follows the turn-based fighting rhythm that players expect from Persona games. One thing is missing: the sneaky mechanics that let you ambush enemies. You can attack them early to whittle down their health (or get ambushed yourself), but it lacks the stealth mechanics that dovetailed so nicely with Persona 5 Royal’s heist theme, for instance. 

Whether or not the story lives up to the promise is tough to tell from a single hour of playtime. But a lot of the trappings of Persona games are here, including some truly lovely and stylized user interface touches like scene transitions (some parts of the menus are a little more bland this time around). 

We’ll have to wait for the full experience to see whether Metaphor ReFantazio distinguishes itself from its Persona forebears — and if players take to the new direction.